Melting
by lollipoptobi
Summary: An AU about Haku and Kimimaro, who were saved by a rogue Kushina instead of Zabuza or Orochimaru. Hints of MinaKushi, NejiTen. Rated M for violence and serious subjects.
1. Chapter 1

Haku stared at his hands. He had never liked his hands very much. They were too flimsy, too tiny, too thin. He couldn't carry the weight of his family with these hands. And Kushina-san would be gone soon. She didn't say it, but he knew by the way she talked to him, and to Kimimaro. There was an urgency hidden underneath her voice that was starting to leak out the edges. She wasn't sleeping as much either, and twice in the last month she had woken Haku and Kimimaro up and made them break camp and run for the rest of the night. She was breaking.

Haku had seen her fight Orochimaru once, he knew that she had some sort of power dormant within her. He and Kimimaro had been more than busy up against Orochimaru's assistant, Kabuto, but they had both felt the immense power. It had been enough of a worry to Kabuto that he had let his guard slip trying to return to Orochimaru's side and Kimimaro had inflicted a fatal blow on him. Orochimaru had gotten away, but it wasn't long after that news reached them, news that Sasuke Uchiha had defeated him somehow.

Things settled down after that. Orochimaru had attacked and nearly killed the Hokage of Kushina-san's hometown, so she had hunted him for the past few years. Now that they had no large goal, Kushina was content to just live with them in one place as a secluded but relatively normal family. Those days had been good days.

Kimimaro's lazy side showed and Kushina was constantly nagging at him to hide the fact that she didn't want to do anything and Haku always ended up doing the chores at the end of the day.

Then the Uchiha came. The older one, the smarter one. The one that smelled like blood. He had left both Haku and Kimimaro shivering and unable to stand. Haku had retched after that ordeal. Kushina fled, drawing him away from them, while Haku had to summon water for him and Kimimaro. To cuddle Kimimaro and whisper to him. For Kimimaro's sake and for Haku's sake as well.

"It's going to be okay. It was all just a dream, just a bad dream. It's going to be okay." He pulled himself closer to Kimimaro and rained little kisses onto his face and arms, which were covered in a sheen of sweat, to reassure himself that Kimimaro was actually there by him. And Kimimaro returned the feelings by clutching Haku so close to him that it was almost painful. They were messy, and broken and alone together.

And they would have lain together like that for days until Kushina came. She didn't take days, only about twelve hours. She came back wounded, and there was no sign of the Uchiha or his partner. She sat them up, de-robed them both, and washed them silently in cool water, singing her song to them. It was a song they hadn't heard since they were little, sleeping all in the same bed and clutching Kushina out of fear of the nightmares that they had.

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do..." She washed the blood off herself too, and Haku had regained himself enough to clean and bandage her wounds. He had never seen Kushina get much more than a scratch, even in her fight against Orochimaru, and it frightened him. He kissed her cheek and cuddled up against her back when he was done. Kimimaro silently made food for everyone. They ate huddled together, they fell asleep huddled together. No one said much. They all came to the unspoken conclusion that they would have to leave their small home as soon as everybody was done recovering.

Which took longer than expected, mostly because of Kushina's wounds. She kicked them out of her bed so she could heal properly, so they tried to sleep by themselves, but Haku woke up from a nightmare that night to find that Kimimaro curled around him.

"We're going to have to leave soon." Kimimaro whispered softly into Haku's hair. "Once we all get better."

"Then I never want to get better." Haku whispered back. He cuddled into Kimimaro's chest, and Kimimaro tightened his arms around Haku in response. "Let's just stay like this forever."

"Let's." Kimimaro replied.

They continued sleeping in the same bed, sometimes Haku having the nightmares and sometimes Kimimaro, but after the morning that Kushina woke them both up with a loud "Yosh! Pack up, pack up, ttebane!" they slept apart. They had no more dreams because in the wilderness, you can't afford to loose sleep to anything when you're out there.

Their path brought them to a little inn outside Konoha. "Stay here, I'll be back in a few days." And then she was gone. Haku and Kimimaro stayed there, helping the landlady with chores after their money for rent ran out, until a member of the Leaf Anbu with only one arm came to question them on where she had gone.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Finally, an update! I know, I know, I'm horrible. There are starting to be some really serious themes in this. Child prostitution and rape, for one. This chapter is much longer, but that's just because the scene is a lot longer. I'm going to warn you, there will be major character death in this story. I'm planning twists, and they are absolutely not pleasant twists. So... Read at your own risk.

* * *

Their path brought them to a little inn outside Konoha. "Stay here, I'll be back in a few days." And then she was gone. Haku and Kimimaro stayed there, helping the landlady with chores after their money for rent ran out, until a member of the Leaf Anbu with only one arm came to question them on where she had gone.

"Kushina-san told us to wait for her, so we will wait." Kimimaro said gruffly, well aware that the presence of Anbu in the inn was unsettling the guests.

"You said she's been gone for a week now?" The man swore and removed his mask and hood, revealing shocking yellow hair. He sighed, swore again and kicked an empty crate, lying in the yard. Two more Anbu members practically materialized beside him, one with big, white hair who was reading a book and one with brown hair.

"Yondaime-san, you agreed not to take off your mask." The one with the brown hair said.

"You're going to follow her, right?" Kimimaro asked, totally ignoring the anbu. Haku's hand shot out to grip his arm, subconsciously. He gripped it tightly, and moved closer to Kimimaro.

"We are not entirely sure where she went, but yes. She has been targeted by some rather nasty people." The yondaime replied.

"We want to come with." Kimimaro said with an air of finality.

"You are not needed" was the immediate answer.

"I'm a medic. And I can track her." Haku spoke up for the first time. "I've always been able to track Kushina-san."

Haku took the lead on the search, but the yondaime kept getting anxious and going on ahead, only to be called back by the brown haired Anbu agent. They kept going at almost full speed for Haku until the white haired ninja spoke up.

"We'll be resting here."

The brown haired ninja joined the white haired one on the ground. The yellow haired ninja paused, standing ahead in the group and very still.

"Yondaime-san?"

"No, you're right. I'm going to let off some steam though, scout around our campsite."

"In that case!" Said the white haired ninja cheerfully, waving Yondaime-san off cheerfully.

"Ah! Wait, Yondaime..." But the yellow haired ninja had already vanished, so he rounded his frustration on the one standing next to him. "Sempai! We were only allowing him to come with if we were protecting him! What do you mean by letting him go off on his own?"

"Maa, Tenzou, calm down a little. He's not called Yellow Flash for nothing. Not only is he fast, but he has a lot of stamina. You wouldn't know cause you've never been on a long distance mission with him before, but he has even more stamina than Guy. He's worried about the bijuu too. Well, rumors say that she was his old flame when they were younger..."

The one called Tenzou sighed and started setting up camp while the one with white hair took off his mask, only to reveal a second one covering the lower half of his face, and started to get things out for making dinner. Kimimaro and Haku silently set up their small camp on the other side of the clearing.

Kimimaro and Haku both sensed the ninjas at the same time, tensing up and exchanging glances. Haku looked across at the anbu preparing the fire. He only looked up and sighed.

"Put away your kunai, Tenzou, boys. They're farther away then they sound. And they're ours." He went back to quietly preparing the fire. Haku and Kimimaro scanned the green forrest, still tense. The sounds grew closer, and then completely died away, and Haku slid his senbon out, his senses screaming _ambush_.

As the white-haired anbu stood up and pulled out his book to continue reading, a shout rang out.

"KONOHA SENPUKU!" A shinobi clad in all green shot out of the trees, aiming a huge flying kick at the anbu who merely ducked, leaving the large green man to crash wildly into the newly set up tents.

Kimimaro had fallen into a stance ready for fighting, and muttered "I thought they were friendly!" over at Haku, but he wasn't listening. His eyes reflected his sense of disbelief as he stared across the clearing at the four other shinobi, specifically the one who was clad in anbu wear but wasn't wearing a mask, revealing purple eyes, blue hair and spiked teeth. He was eyeing Haku with equal disbelief.

Kimimaro noticed Haku's lack of hostility then. "Haku?" He said, in unison with the blue haired shinobi, their both of their voices expressing confusion. Kimimaro shot an angry glance at the blue-haired interruption, but the young man just broke out into a huge grin and strode towards the two of them confidently.

"Man, I haven't seen you in ages! I ran away not long after you did, and I got taken in by that Orochimaru creep. Somehow I ended up working for the leaf. How come you get to help escort the Yondaime? You must be the cream of the crop, eh?" He put his hand on Haku's shoulder.

Kimimaro's hand shot out to grip hard on the boy's wrist, pulling the boy's hand down to Kimimaro's hip and smashing his fist into the boy's right shoulder, the force almost dislocating it, then twisting his hand so that his wrist was facing the boy's neck. His ulna shot out, sharpened and ready to slit the throat of the perceived threat.

"Kimi!" Haku shouted in alarm, instinctively trying to step in between the two boys, but Kimimaro had left no space.

"Oi, oi! I meant no harm. Haku and I go way back, I wouldn't hurt a hair on her, erm... _his_ head." The blue haired nin smiled widely, seemingly oblivious to the bone dagger pressing against his throat.

"Kimimaro, Suigetsu is an old friend." Haku said, the warning in his voice very clear to both of the other boys. While Kimimaro was glaring into Suigetsu's eyes as if the only thing that mattered was his newfound life goal to give Suigetsu a slow and painful death, Haku was far more wary of the two fully grown anbu agents and the young kunoichi across the clearing, all of whom had drawn their kunai and were giving all of their attention to the altercation at hand. The other leaf nin, all three males who were clearly proficient in taijutsu, had moved behind Kimimaro. None of them had moved to stop him yet, but they were all ready to.

"Ah, calm your pretty little head, Haku-cchi, I'll be fine~" Suigetsu almost purred Haku's name, eliciting a growl from Kimimaro. The bone dagger pressed against his skin and the blue-haired shinobi leered back at him.

Suddenly, a kunai shot passed Kimimaro's, straight into the boy's sharp-toothed smile. But instead of slicing through his head, it exploded into... water? The wrist in Kimimaro's hand melted away as well. Haku spun around to challenge the aggressor, senbon again ready.

"Stand down, Suigetsu. Don't antagonize our guests." Came the Yondaime's voice from behind Kimimaro.

"Mmkay. Sorry... Sir." Suigetsu's voice came from his head, floating in the middle of the pool of water.

"Yondaime-san, are you done running around?" Tenzou said, slightly sarcastically.

"Yes, I didn't find anything except these two at each other's throats. Suigestu, these two are our trackers for the bijuu. You are not to antagonize either of them.

Suigetsu had fully un-melted from his previously liquid state, and had take the opportunity to move back several feet from both Kimimaro and Haku.

"I grew up with Haku-cchi, sir. The creepy guy's the one who jumped me first."

Sparks practically flew from Kimimaro's eyes, and Haku took note of the fact that the Yondaime seemed to be eyeing Haku with concern, rather than Kimimaro, whose malice was still palpable and who had still not sheathed his bone dagger. Haku smiled his well practiced smile of "I am not a threat at all, just an innocent young maiden who would never wish anyone ill" at the yellow haired shinobi and turned to drag Kimimaro over and finish setting up their tent.

"We cannot afford to give them an excuse to fight us when we are so clearly outnumbered, and regardless of their numbers, they will help us find and save Kushina-san, so we've got to stay on their good side. Even when that means putting up with an arrogant bastard or two." Haku hissed under his breath, taking his aggresion out on the rope as he tied his knots extra tight. "Christ, Kimi, it's not like I can't take care of myself!"

"I was bred for war."

"That's not an acceptable excuse and you know it. Kushina raised us better than that."

"She raised us to protect each other and then left us behind when it really mattered." Kimimaro growled. Haku whipped his head around, pinning him with an icy gaze.

"If we weren't in a situation where we were surrounded by very dangerous and potentially malicious strangers, I would slap you for saying that." His voice was deadly serious, and Kimimaro looked as if he _had_ been slapped. He lowered his gaze and dropped his petulant attitude.

"Sorry. I just... Haku, I don't think we're going to find her alive." All the hostility was gone from Kimimaro's voice and Haku could tell how scared he really was from the almost imperceptible waver in his voice.

"She's stronger than either of ever knew. She's the absolute strongest. We've always trusted her and we have to trust her now." Haku replied, placing his hand over Kimimaro's. "It will be fine." But he didn't believe his words, and neither did Kimimaro, even though he smiled back at Haku and replied with a cheery "you're right!"

They fell into silence as they laid down their sleeping mats, and Suigetsu came over.

"The Yondaime is sending our team back to deliver a message, 'cept for Neiji. It was good seeing you alive, come visit me back at the village, yeah?" He gave Haku a friendly pat on the shoulder and winked in Kimimaro's direction, and then swaggered off to join the two jump-suited guys and the kunoichi, who, Haku hadn't failed to notice, had been looking at Kimimaro intensely the whole time. He smiled kindly as they left, thankful that most of the tension was now gone with the blue haired, scatter brained Suigetsu.

It was true that they had known each other from the small village they were living in, but they hadn't met until after Haku took to the streets as an orphan and a beggar. Suigetsu had actually been incredibly kind to Haku on occasion, splitting the coin he made with other beggars. The boys and girls on the streets often disappeared. Haku had known why after a nice-looking man offered him coin for a favor, taken him to an abandoned shack, and then tried to rape him. That ordeal had ended in a third ice riddled corpse, and Haku more scared and scarred and still on the streets.

Suigetsu had simply learned to turn that into his advantage. To take it. And even though it left him much more literally scarred, he had still grinned at Haku and told stories about his amazing older brother who he'd go find someday. Suigetsu had been gone for three weeks when Kushina found Haku. He had thought that Suigetsu's luck had finally run out, that he was finally dead. He didn't quite know if he was relieved to see otherwise.

_'I ran away not long after you did...' _

Haku's mood was severely dampened for the rest of the evening.

They ate dinner together. Initially, they ate dinner in silence, but then, totally unprompted, the Yondaime burst out.

"Okay boys! I could see you eyeing my arm back there. You're curious about how a great ninja like myself lost it, yes? Well I'll tell you!"

"Yondaime, you shouldn't reveal such information to outsiders." Tenzou remarked quickly. He had finally taken his mask off for dinner but he looked incredibly uncomfortable without it. The Yondaime laughed loudly.

"You're just saying that because you just don't want to have to listen to the story again. But why would you not want to listen? It's thrilling and exciting if I say so myself."

"We've heard it 59 times now. For Tenzou that'd be closer to a hundred since you rope him into going drinking with you more than me." The other anbu agent replied from behind his small, shady looking novel.

"Yes, why is it that you're always so busy, Kakashi? I'm even your sensei and you can't even bother to come drinking with me?

"I have a wife and kids, Yondaime-sama."

"Ah, so cold... Right! My arm. It's a thrilling tale! You see, Konoha was hosting the chuunin exams, and so shinobi from all across the country came, as well as ninja from Sunagakure and Otogakure! The Kazekage himself came! Ah, those were exciting games... Neji was in them, and he fought against his current team mate, Tenten. That was an exciting match; she was the only one who knew his weak spot and boy did she exploit it!" He laughed loudly at this, and Neji looked very uncomfortable at the reminder.

"I still became a chuunin."

"Yes, and Tenten did too. That was a fantastic batch of shinobi that we saw..."

"The arm?" Tenzou said in monotone.

"Ah yes, well, it turns out that my hard working Anbu were investigating the death of one of the proctors. He was a good man, and the circumstances were very fishy indeed, but it lead them to the Kazekage himself! Before they could warn me though, pandemonium erupted in the stands! Or rather the opposite, all the spectators fell asleep! It was a pity too, the fight was really coming to a head... The Kazekage attacked me, but I, being a superb shinobi and the hokage of the leaf was able to sense it just in time! We leapt to the roof and I quickly discovered that the Kazekage was really Orochimaru of the Sannin in disguise!"

His gestures became bigger and more animated as he described the ensuing fight, his single hand gesturing more than enough to make up for his missing one. It was an interesting story to listen to, and even Kimimaro stopped sulking to listen carefully to the descriptions of the verbal and physical parries. Tenzou, despite his protests to hearing the story told again still smiled with pride when the Yondaime came to the part about how he sacrificed his own arm in order to deal a near fatal blow to the other shinobi and forced him to retreat.

The story only came to an end after the food had all been eaten and the fire was slowly dying into embers.

"And that, my dear disciples, is how I lost my arm."

There was a moment of silence, and then Kimimaro spoke up.

"Kushina killed him. The snake creep I mean. It must have been not less than a few months after you'd fought with him, because he was really weak for one of the sannin. Haku and I took his spy down. Kabuto, right?"

One of Kakashi's brows raised up into his hair line, and Tenzou-anbu and Neji-anbu were looking carefully at the two of them. The Yondaime just stared down at the embers, his mood subdued.

"It's very impressive that you two were able to take him down. He was probably S-class in his top form." A small smile tugged at his lips. "And I wouldn't expect anything less than that from Kushina."

Kakashi-anbu must have picked up on something in his sensei's voice, because he cleared his throat and announced that it was bed time and everyone had a long day tomorrow, and even scolded the Hokage for keeping everyone up so late.

"Kimi," Haku said, when they were in the privacy of their own tent. "I trust them. I don't think we need to keep watch tonight."

Kimimaro opened his mouth to protest, but Haku continued.

"Kakashi-san is right, we'll need our rest. The Hokage scouted the area, and you remember what Kushina-san told us about him. His scouting radius was probably miles wide. If they had wanted to kill us... Well they could've done that when there were eight of them and two of us. Besides, we're light sleepers."

Kimimaro just shut his mouth and nodded, though he rolled over so he wasn't facing Haku. Haku just snuggled up against his back in response.

"Good night, Kimi." He whispered. Just as he was drifting off, he heard Kimimaro reply.

"Good night, Haku."


End file.
